What’s the easiest way to grow your dental practice? Dentists nationwide have seen tremendous growth via online scheduling. What is it about letting patients schedule an online appointment that attracts them? Let’s take a look at that along with 3 ways dental offices are growing by using this simple, yet powerful tool – online scheduling.
1. Patient Convenience
Online scheduling is a way of telling patients, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to book an appointment with us, on your own time. Scheduling an appointment should be simple and fast. No phone call headaches. No time wasted. Patients will love you for simplifying the process.
We know how busy patients get with work, family, and obligations, putting off dental visits out of lack of time to make the phone call. With online scheduling, they’ll be able to book appointments from their smartphone, tablet, or any device, while on the commuter rail, while grocery shopping, or even in bed.
They can view the available dates, times and options as you’ve customized them to appear online, selecting what works best for them. No back and forth on the phone feeling like they have to modify their schedule depending on available appointments.
Statistics have shown that patients are more likely to keep their appointment if they get to choose the time they want rather than being pushed into something they have to make space for.
Online scheduling gives them this freedom, totally stress-free, and effortless. Getting patients in the door and retaining them is a whole lot easier if they’re given the flexibility to make appointments 24/7, 365 days a year. Being able to schedule an appointment online is a total win-win for all.
2. Free up Front Desk Staff
Online scheduling streamlines the process for staff, allowing them to ditch their appointment books, and reducing hours spent on the phone each day. Scheduled appointments transfer directly into, and can be approved from your practice management system (eg. Opendental, Eaglesoft, and Dentrix) without any intervention needed from your team.
On top of that, patient insurance eligibility verification can be done within 60 seconds of receiving the submitted appointment request. No more hours of daily staff time wasted booking appointments or verifying insurance via phone calls. All those missed potential patient calls that don’t leave voice messages, will no longer subsist.
New prospects will easily find the appointment booking widget on your website and take it from there. With online scheduling available for your patients, each office day will pleasantly fly by easier and faster for everyone.
Additional great features that come with online scheduling are:
(1) Automated appointment reminders,
(2) The ability to text or email patients digital intake forms with the reminders, and
(3) Access to view the status of appointment reminders, completion of patient forms, insurance eligibility status, and more.
Once your patient’s appointment is approved, you’ll be able to customize and automate appointment reminders to eliminate no-shows, along with having completed patient forms, IDs, and documents submitted and integrated into your PMS before the visit. How awesome is that!
3. Improved Office Efficiency & Productivity
Your team members will be amongst the first to thank you for easing the list of simultaneous tasks they are expected to juggle daily. Online scheduling drastically reduces front desk workload by streamlining appointment scheduling, appointment reminders, and even the entire intake process.
With paperless intake forms along with online scheduling, your front desk will have all the patient’s information integrated into your practice management system saving them from having to manually input information into the system. No more calling patients to schedule appointments, or calling to remind them of their scheduled days/times.
You’ll no longer need to scan insurance cards, IDs, or medication lists since patients can upload them digitally from home before the visit. Stacks of paper forms will be a thing of the past; all of it digitally transfers directly into your PMS software.
With all these benefits, comes less hours wasted each day on mundane tasks, and more time spent with patients on high quality care that patients expect and deserve. Improving your practice’s efficiency and productivity is of utmost importance to boost patient satisfaction and your bottom line.
Conclusion
With online patient appointment scheduling, patients are provided the most convenient and simplified route of booking a visit with your office. Patients, front desk staff and dentists all love the benefits that come along with allowing patients to schedule appointments online, along with the amount of time and energy saved. You can finally say goodbye to tedious phone calls, manual appointment books, and other time-consuming tasks.
It’s a win-win platform for providers and patients. Don’t be left in the dark, while other dental practices take the lead on improving patient growth. Learn more about online appointments today.
